


without complexities or pride

by Rikkamaru



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, M/M, Magical Familiar Kudou Shinichi, Magical Realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 19:05:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16069391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikkamaru/pseuds/Rikkamaru
Summary: Kaito was glad he had a familiar by his side, to help him in his position as a magician and Kaitou Kid, but it didn't stop him from wondering what Shinichi's life was like before they'd met. Shinichi wondered that too.





	without complexities or pride

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thiective](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thiective/gifts).



> Based on a prompt/idea from thiective.

Kaito stormed into his room and paced, stripping his Kid costume off with a haste that further displayed his distress. He’d only just thrown on a pair of sweatpants and shoved his outfit into an out of the way spot when he heard wingbeats growing nearer and spun around to stare at his window.

A few seconds later Shinichi appeared, the owl alighting on his window sill and drooping as he settled into place. He blinked at Kaito and hooted, the white of magic already gone from his feathers – and hiding the blood that was bound to be there, Kaito thought with a scowl.

“Turn back,” he demanded, and either Shinichi was more exhausted than he looked or he was misunderstanding on _purpose_ because all he did was cock his head to the side in that disconcerting way only owls could. “Turn _back_ , Shinichi; I know Hakuba’s bird got you tonight.”

Shinichi hooted again and extended his wings to display his unmarked underside. Kaito was utterly unimpressed. “If you aren’t hurt why aren’t you turning back?” he asked, and for a second Shinichi’s wings bristled at being caught before he tucked them back in and hooted innocently. The magician scowled. “Alright,” he said, trailing off to let Shinichi know this was his last chance, before flexing his magic when the owl didn’t move.

The owl squawked at the magic between them twisted and tried to force him back into his human form before the sound turned into a shriek of very _real_ anger and the magic froze and vanished, leaving Kaito growling as he looked at his familiar. He tried again, but this time the magic didn’t even twist as Shinichi enforced his will on it, and Kaito scowled again at the reminder.

Kaito may be the one who had the magic and cast the spells, but Shinichi was responsible for empowering and refining them.

The silence that stretched between them was heavy, Kaito looking away with his arms wrapped around himself as Shinichi glared him into submission. Finally, after his point had been made, Kaito felt a shift within his magic reserve and turned back around to see Shinichi sitting on the window sill, his face pale with blood loss but his glare still in place. “You may be my magician, Kaito, but I’m certainly not your _pet_ ,” he spat out, grimacing as he removed his own shirt.

Kaito frowned and made his way closer to Shinichi, turning his familiar so that his back was easier to examine. “So sorry I’m _worried_ about you, you asshole,” he huffed, and beneath his hands Shinichi’s back was like steel before he sighed and his muscles loosened.

“I know,” he conceded, and Kaito looked up to see that his eyes were trained on the poster on the opposite wall. Kaito tugged him further into the room and sat him on Kaito’s bed, Shinichi not resisting. “But you shouldn’t try to force me to change shapes when I’m cognizant.”

“And _you_ shouldn’t hide your injuries from me,” Kaito pointed out, opening his medical kit with more force than was necessary. There was a pause as Kaito gathered the items he needed and Shinichi mulled over his words.

“I didn’t want to worry you,” Shinichi finally admitted, and Kaito turned around to see him staring out the window now, half-heartedly trying to hide his face from view.

Against his will Kaito felt his expression soften, and rubbed at Shinichi’s shoulder as he settled behind him. “I appreciate it when we’re in a high-stress situation,” like all of his heists, “but you need to tell me when we’re _safe_ that something’s wrong, or even _before_ so I can start trying to get us to a safe location, okay?” He passed the swab along the wounds on Shinichi’s back and felt awful as Shinichi flinched in his hold. “I nearly lost it when I realized you were hurt,” he said, and the fear and uncertainty and _anger_ that he’d experienced when he felt something land on his cheek and realized it was Shinichi’s blood hit him again, his free hand tightening its grip before he remembered himself and relaxed.

Shinichi sighed, and Kaito couldn’t help but smile as he pressed against the magician’s hands. “I’m sorry,” he finally said, but Kaito didn’t respond as he began to wrap his wounds, deciding they didn’t need stitches. “I didn’t intend to upset you. I’ll…I’ll try and be better about telling you when I’m injured,” he finished awkwardly, but Kaito took a moment while bandaging him to carefully tuck his head against the back of Shinichi’s neck.

“That’s all I ask,” he assured the other, and the last of Shinichi’s tension drained away. They sat in silence after that, taking comfort in each other’s presence as Kaito continued to wrap the bandages around Shinichi’s chest. “All done,” he declared as he finished up, and Shinichi gave him a smile that made him feel ten feet tall.

“Thanks, Kaito,” he said, but Kaito just waved the other off and moved so that he could curl up gently against Shinichi’s side.

“Of course. A magician has to help their familiar after all.” He added a cheesy wink for good measure and was rewarded with an amused smile and eye roll even as Shinichi sighed at him.

They were only sitting like that for a few minutes before Kaito laid back on his bed and carefully tugged Shinichi on top of him, the other teen a comforting weight. The magician’s hands roamed cautiously as his familiar let out a tired, appreciative sound but didn’t say anything else. He hummed and let a hand linger on the side of Shinichi’s rib cage, gentle as he pressed against the mark there. “You’re lost in thought,” Kaito finally said, and Shinichi hummed.

“I am,” he confirmed, but didn’t say anything else on the matter.

Kaito carefully ran his other hand up Shinichi’s side and wove his fingers through his hair, the parody of preening making his familiar press closer at the attention. “What about?” he asked.

It took Shinichi a moment to answer, as if he were thinking about how to say it. “I realized my friend Haibara is Hakuba’s familiar.”

Kaito made a face at the detective’s name, not at all happy to bring him up after the night they’d just had. But it was clear Shinichi had been chewing on this for a while, and Kaito wouldn’t stop him. “Haibara?”

“The hawk?” Shinichi asked back to see if that was enough of a clarification, and Kaito’s body jerked in realization.

“He told us her name was Watson,” Kaito defended, and Shinichi’s responding noise was understanding but amused.

“It would be in poor form to introduce your familiar by their true name,” he agreed wryly, before startling as Kaito pinched his side in retaliation.

“So her true name is Haibara?” Kaito asked, ignoring Shinichi’s irritated glance but tightening his grip when his familiar made to move away.

Shinichi made a point of resting his chin on Kaito’s sternum and smirked as he heard his magician’s heart speed up in response. “No, that’s just another pseudonym. But I think I saw a bondmark on one of her claws, and it resembled the one you noted Hakuba having.”

“The bastard’s familiar is your friend and he _still_ had her attack you?” Kaito made a sound of disgust before Shinichi propped himself up to properly look at him, grimacing at the way his movement pulled at the scratches on his back.

“Kaito, you have so many pet birds he may not even think I’m your familiar,” Shinichi pointed out before rolling his eyes when Kaito began pulling him back to his chest to reduce the strain on his back. “And it’s not like it matters. To him Kaitou Kid is a criminal that deserves to be in jail, regardless of his motivations for doing what he does. And while Haibara may disagree, she certainly won’t go to bat for a random thief, even if she _did_ know you were mine.”

“I still don’t get how you can associate with _Hakuba’s_ familiar,” Kaito said, his disdain clear, but Shinichi just laughed.

“Better the devil you know,” he said back, and there was something about his amusement, his fond exasperation when thinking about the other familiar, that struck Kaito.

It was hard to remember his familiar – his _partner_ – didn’t think like most humans. Familiars were strange and still beyond understanding, some mixture of creature and construct and human and _other_. They spoke like they were years older than they were but had no memory to indicate why, knew concepts and people above anything they would learn in the magical environment they were believed to hail from, but never questioned that knowledge.

Some whispered they were changelings, or humans raised by the fae and trained in their arts, but no one dared to ask.

Not even Kaito, who huffed about Shinichi’s poor taste in friends, dared to bring it up as he felt Shinichi rest his head over Kaito’s heart and start to lull off. “Hey,” he protested, barely holding back a yawn as he nudged his familiar to try and keep him awake. “I still have to shower, you need to move.”

Shinichi groaned, just shy of petulant, and there was a tug on his magic. Kaito allowed it, curious of Shinichi’s intention, and felt it wash over him and clean away the grime of the day. He laughed and pulled the other man closer. “Lazy,” he teased, but Shinichi only grumbled and moved so that more of his weight rested on the magician.

They fell asleep like that, tangled in each other’s arms.

* * *

_Kaito peeked into his father’s study, taking in the whole room and insuring that his dad wasn’t there before sneaking in, being extra careful to close the door quietly behind._

_His dad had been acting weird lately, coming in here for hours at a time and only leaving for food on weekends. Kaito didn’t like it; his dad should be with him and Mom and teaching Kaito new magic tricks!_

_He was planning to get to the bottom of why his dad was doing this and maybe, if he figured it out, his dad could tell him about it and spend more time with them again._

_Kaito didn’t see anything in the room that was different from when he last saw it. The desk was still in its normal spot, as was the large mirror he liked to use. The bookshelves were different though, the books differing in size and color. When he moved closer he squinted and tried to read them better. **The Art of Ritual Spells** , he saw, along with **The Familiar Index**. The rest had similar names, and looking at them all Kaito felt a rush of excitement. His dad was trying to summon a familiar? Maybe he could teach Kaito and he could have a magic assistant._

_Kaito began to look around with increasing curiosity. Maybe his dad had already begun to make the sigils for summoning a familiar? He didn’t see anything, but why else would his dad have the material needed to make one? Kaito shifted items around in his dad’s desk, looking in there, and brightened when he found a roughly sketched out summoning circle. He didn’t recognize any of the symbols outside of one he thought meant ‘find’ or ‘track’, but it still looked like the real deal._

_As he admired the summoning circle, Kaito felt his eyes get drawn to the symbol in its center, the rune unfamiliar but put as the centerpiece of the creature’s being that his dad considered summoning. He tried having his magic tell him what the symbol meant, but all that did was make the entire circle begin to glow with the white light of his family’s magic and make the symbol all the more appealing to look at._

_Staring as intently as he was at the symbol, Kaito didn’t notice the way his magic began to pick up other effects the longer it remained in the paper, wind beginning to swirl around the room and disturb the books on the shelves and cracked open door. The door closed with little fanfare and Kaito startled horribly and spun around, trying to drop the paper in a bid to look innocent._

_The paper sliced his finger and a drop of blood touched it._

_And the world was immediately enveloped in light._

_When everything settled Kaito rubbed his eyes, trying to blink away the spots that obscured his vision, and looked up._

_An owl was perched on his dad’s desk, its head swiveling around to take in the room. It ruffled its wings and let its night black feathers settle before it turned its head to look at him, and he watched it cock its head at an uncomfortable angle to look at him. “Dad’s going to be so mad,” Kaito whispered, and the owl cocked its head the other way. He cleared his throat. “Hi there, Owl-san. I guess you’re my familiar now.”_

_The owl hooted and something in Kaito…_ shifted _. It felt like something inside him was draining away, but he barely noticed as he saw white magic cover the owl and its shape begin to change. When the magic faded away a young boy was standing there, looking a surprising amount like Kaito as he smiled at him._

_“I guess I am,” the boy said. “My name is Shinichi. Please treat me well, Magician-san.”_

**Author's Note:**

> This has been given the dubious honor of being like Young God where I might write more for this one day, but for now is a oneshot.


End file.
